Residents of a council block in Llanrumn say their living conditions are made worse by mould, damp and, according to some, sewage leaking from showers. A family living in Clevedon Court, built in 1959, is also concerned about asbestos in the loose tiles in their flat. The substance can be harmful to health, although Cardiff council insists there is no risk under these circumstances.

Liam Williams, who lives in the apartment with his partner Shaunie Maguire and their daughter, says he has been waiting for months for the chrysotile floor to be completed. He said they had to rearrange a damage inspection after someone from the council arrived at the flat in January, allegedly without notice.

Liam said that an inspection was recently carried out which confirmed the presence of asbestos in the apartment. “Recently, an inspector came in and told us that as long as it doesn’t fall apart, it’s safe,” Liam said. “Well, this chrysotile is crumbling around the edges of our room.” Cardiff city council said work would begin shortly on the couple’s flat, including removing tiles containing traces of asbestos. Authorities also said that asbestos was not dangerous because it was “firmly adhered to the tile material”.

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But Liam said he and his partner even tried to work on the property to bring it back to an acceptable level and deal with mold and damp issues. He added: “It’s the money my partner invested, the work we’ve done to make the place beautiful and it’s coming off the walls because of the obvious state of the property. It is not good.”

Speaking about how the situation has affected him and his partner, Liam added: “Our mental health is terrible. Just being in this house has me on the verge of a nervous breakdown because I’m trying to make the house a little bit more girl-friendly, but all the work I’m trying to do is useless because it’s falling apart.” Shawnee, who has epilepsy, said she was looking for an opportunity to move into an apartment that was more suitable for her.



Clevedon Court Apartments in Llanramney



Shawnee McGuire and her daughter Demi-Jade McGuire together on the stairs



Mold on the apartment window.



The family is concerned about dampness and mold

Liam said they had been on the waiting list for the Band Bee Council, which is for applicants in dire need of housing, for “at least a year”. Ideally, they said they wanted a ground floor unit with a laundry room. However, the waiting list for housing at Cardiff Council, like many authorities across the country, is significant. At the end of last year, the council said it had more than 8,200 people on its housing waiting list.

At the time, officials also said they were receiving 400 new applications a month, but only 1,600 properties were available for rent each year. Liam said: “[Shawnee] had seizures on the stairs. We don’t have a wet room here and she had a spasm in the shower and fell. I’m surprised no bones were broken on that staircase.”



At Liam and Shawnee’s house



A crack in the ground



mold on the walls

Mark Davies, 49, said that in the nine years he has lived at Clevedon Court with his partner, he has had no major problems with the flat. However, that all changed recently when they started noticing what looked and smelled like sewage running down the shower drain. He said: “Every time I turned off the shower to get it wet, the first thing that came off was leaves, then it looked like dirt and it started to smell.

“I’m not sure if it’s faeces or food leftovers, I don’t know, but it’s gross after you shower and have to sink again.” Mark claims his property had drainage problems in October, but it wasn’t until March that someone came to check. He and his partner said they are still dealing with the issue and said black mold has also started to appear in the bathroom.



Mark Davis Claims The Bathtub Is Leaking Sewage



Mark said that black mold started to appear in his bathroom.



Damage to David William’s apartment

Cardiff city council said a plumbing inspection was carried out on Wednesday 5 April to refurbish a bathroom in an apartment. Mark, who compared the stench from the drain to an egg, said he had to empty the drain and sanitize the shower every time. before he or his partner needed to wash up. He added: “It’s not so cool. You go in there to shower, you want to come out nice and fresh, and now my partner wears a face mask because of the smell.

David Williams, who has lived in his Clevedon Court flat since 2020, said he had again had problems with a leaking roof. The board would fix the problem, but David says it took months to get someone to do it. He said that he is also experiencing problems with dampness and mold. David said: “Since October I have been constantly trying to get someone out. One day in November they sent two people from the contractor.

“They said it was really bad and they would fix it again in a few days and then nothing all through Christmas until three weeks ago. I kept calling them, filling out online consultation forms. . They didn’t mention anything about repairing all the damage he did during that long period. It got to the point where when it rained, the electricity went out.”

Photos taken of David’s apartment show brown marks around the shower switch in the bathroom and marks around one of the light cords in his ceiling. Commenting on the 64-year-old block in general, David added: “It looks so bad. Frankly, it sucks to live there. It looks terrible, tattered and very worn.”



A wall inside Leona’s house



Leona: “I don’t want to live here anymore”




Another Clevedon Court resident, Leona Malcolm, said of the block: “Outside, the pieces are falling apart. The roof is always scaffolding outside because there are problems with the roof. I don’t want to live here anymore. uninhabitable, but the probability of change is quite low because there is a real estate crisis.’

Leona, 26, said she also had drainage problems last year. She said: “Other people’s waste was getting into my bathroom, my shower, my sink. It was horrible. I don’t like germs, especially toilet seat germs, it’s disgusting. Obviously I had a little meltdown.” After a series of repairs by the city, he said, the problem never reoccurred. The first time she had drainage problems, Leona said the council came to fix it the same day.

A spokesperson for Cardiff council said: “The council’s repairs unit has responded to several reports from tenants about repairs at Clevedon Court. Last year, all necessary repairs were completed in Apartments 1 and 6, including roof repairs in November. A plumbing inspection was concluded yesterday (05/04) for renovation of the bathroom on the 2nd floor. week and will be completed by mid-May.

“This also includes removing tiles that contain traces of asbestos, although as asbestos is firmly attached to the tile material, this poses no risk. We take reports of damp and mold issues in our properties very seriously and respond to inquiries from tenants. ” as soon as possible. The council has allocated additional resources to address these issues and a new specialist moisture and mold remediation team will be established very soon.

“Over the next few years, we will be making major investments in our homes, including insulating exterior walls and upgrading our central heating systems to improve their thermal qualities. There are also plans to tender for roofing and painting contracts for a number of council buildings, including Clevedon Court, as part of the council’s work in progress programme. Tenants will be informed of these updates in a timely manner.”

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Source: Wales Online